Cineform Neoscene V5 for Canon 600D - No Sound on AVI Files

I've found that although the MOV files produced from the Canon 600D can be processed with Cineform Neoscene in the same workflow that I use for files from the Canon 5D Mark 2 once processed the AVI files produced have no sound in them.

It appears that the older version of Neoscene is not compatible with later Canon MOV files and an upgrade is needed from v1.6 to v5. Fortunately this upgrade is substantially less than the basic software price of $129 and comes in at $49 which at current exchange rates works out about £36.

Neoscene Activation Fails

Having downloaded & installed V5 of Neoscene the next challenge was to activate it. The screens for activation are different from most other software and unhelpfully are not the same as the website. There are two hardware codes given on the Neoscene activation and the activation gives no clue as to which to use. Typically the one chosen was incorrect so for reference the code to use for Activating Neoscene is the ENH code not the STD code.

Firstly you need to go to the Cineform website  www.cineform.com/activate.aspx which
which will allow you to enter your hardware code from above (ENH value) along with your serial number and name. This will generate an email to you with your activation code that needs to be entered into Neoscene to use it once the trial period is over.

Using Neoscene to convert Canon 600D MOV files into AVI resolves the problem of jumpy/jerky video when playing Canon 600D MOV files on your PC and also allows you to edit Canon 600D video footage with Windows Movie Maker.

How to Quickly Edit Video from Canon 5DII/7D/60D/600D

Having recently had to quickly produce a short video clip of a musical show I had videoed I thought it would be useful to explain how to quickly edit Video from Canon 5DII/7D/60D/600D using Windows Movie Maker by outlining my workflow in five easy steps.

1) Copy images and video from memory card to PC
2) Process the Canon MOV files to AVI files using Neoscene software. This allows the files to be edited in Windows Movie Maker.
3) Import AVI video clips into Windows Movie Maker and cut/add transitions as required. My clips needed very little cutting and transitions can be added quickly.
4) Save Movie Maker project and publish as AVI or WMV.
5) Upload to YouTube or Vimeo.

The video I edited of Stage Theatre Society production of Our House is here

So in these 5 easy steps I have taken the raw video files from the Canon DSLR camera (5D2/7D/60D/550D/600D) and edited them together to create a final movie. This whole process took under 30 minutes so clearly there wasn't a massive amount of editing done but it shows what can be done easily using free video editing software. The new Windows Movie Maker Live software also allows direct publishing to YouTube or Facebook.

By using the Cineform Neoscene software the highly compressed MOV files produced by the Canon 5DII are converted to AVI format which is more easily editable and avoids the problems of jerky video playback that can be experienced on the Canon 600D files when in the native MOV file.

Editing and Playing HD Video from Canon 5D Mark2

If you have read previous blog posts you will have seen the problems that I have encountered viewing and editing the HD video from the Canon 5D Mark II on a PC. Due to the files being Apple Quicktime MOV format there appears to be no issue using them on an Apple Mac but due to the need to decode on a PC they do not play smoothly.

I have now discovered some software called Cineform NeoScene which enables the MOV files to be converted to native AVI files that both play and can be edited without problems on a PC. The conversion process is very fast and allows both single file and batch conversions.

Although not cheap at $130 this appears to be the perfect solution for being able to edit video from the 5D2 on a PC.